Russia threatens ‘scumbag’ saboteurs with JAIL as opposition leader urges protesters to storm sham election

8 months ago 14

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RUSSIA has threatened “traitorous, scumbag” saboteurs of Vladimir Putin’s sham presidential election with eight years’ prison.

It comes ahead of a protest endorsed by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died at the hands of Russian authorities last month.

The attacks on polling stations are said to have infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin[/caption]

A woman pours green liquid into a presidential election ballot box in Moscow[/caption]

Footage catches the moment a woman pensioner sets fire to a voting booth[/caption]

Anti-Putin protesters are expected to gather at midday tomorrow at polling stations across Russia.

Opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov said that the campaign’s main goal is to demonstrate resistance to Putin’s reelection.

He told The Sun: “We want queues of people to appear at different polling stations, so that everyone can see lines of people who came against Putin and against the war.

“The main task is to demonstrate the fact that Putin does not have much support, that there is a huge number of people who oppose the war.

“The main task is to strike at the legitimacy of this Putin government.”

Putin, 71, is said to be furious with the way Russians have so far sabotaged his presidential election with protests and stunts.

Polling stations across the country were hit by a wave of fire and paint attacks on Friday, the first day of the sham election.

Several Russians were reportedly detained for vandalism after pouring dye into ballot boxes and throwing petrol bombs at booths.

At least two more attacks on ballot boxes were reported today, in addition to the 15 recorded yesterday.

Putin’s bogus election was also the target of cyber attacks, according to Russia, which caused chaos for online voters today.

Online polls were said to be facing a widespread denial-of-service attack, designed to slow then shut down websites and computers.

The despot is all but certain to win another six-year term in the presidential vote – and could remain in power until 2036.

But Russians seem to be resisting the sure win at the polling booths, destroying people’s votes by pouring dye on them, setting ballot boxes alight, and launching fireworks inside polling stations.

Putin’s henchman Dmitry Medvedev today demanded that draconian treason laws, not election laws, be used against the saboteurs.

The former president said: “They are traitors, and their actions can be classified much more strictly,” adding that their “high treason” amounted to offering “assistance to a foreign state during a war”.

He continued: “This is not a child’s game of matches or an innocent prank with greenery.

“This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today.

“Criminal activists at polling stations must realise that their actions could result in twenty years [of jail].”

The official face of the Kremlin’s election machine, Ella Pamfilova, yesterday called the protesters “scumbags” who “destroy the votes of people”.

She claimed today to have “prevented all kinds of liquid injections at 20 polling stations and eight arson attempts”, adding: “In one case, they tried to use a smoke bomb.”

Politician Gudkov told The Sun that the acts had “never happened before”, which “speaks to the attitude already in society towards this procedure of usurpation of power”.

He said: “There will be no change of power in the elections.

“The elections are already illegitimate because they are taking place in the occupied territories.

“We use elections to give people an opportunity to protest what’s happening, but we understand perfectly well that they (Putin’s government) have the opportunity to draw any results.”

The planned protest, called Midday Against Putin, was promoted by Navalny before his untimely death in a penal colony last month.

The Russian opposition leader died in mysterious circumstances while serving a 19-year sentence on trumped-up charges.

Western leaders and members of his camp have claimed he was “murdered” on the direct orders of Putin.

A UN human rights expert said on Monday that Moscow was responsible for his death as he was either killed in prison or died from detention conditions that amounted to torture, Reuters reports.

Earlier this month, Navalny’s widow urged Russians to unleash chaos on election day and protest against the ageing dictator by swarming polling stations.

Taking up her husband’s call to action, Yulia said: “This is a very simple and safe action, it cannot be prohibited, and it will help millions of people see like-minded people and realise that we are not alone.

“We are surrounded by people who are also against war, against corruption and against lawlessness.”